I’d never blogged before these assignments. At the beginning it appeared a little dull, like when your parents are trying to use hip words to bond with you, blogs seemed like trying too hard to get us interested on the subject. But when I stated typing my first blog, I realized, I was hooked. The purpose of this essay is to persuade any skeptic out there, or those of you who haven’t taken the time to appreciate this type of work.
First of all it’s a really easy way to practice written English that is usually the last one we practice on daily bases. The topics our blogs are about are interesting and vary on each assignment, so inspiration is not usually a problem.
Then there is the interactive advantage of blogs over any other written assignment. With blogs you can use visual aide, design your web page as you wish, compare your work to your classmate’s work and modify it whenever you want. This is not only helpful to correct mistake but to motivate and care for the assignment, when one puts creativity in the mix, one gets much more involved with the talks.
In the end blogs turned out to be a fun thing to do, they where relaxing and fun, my opinion shifted from a mixture of bored and skeptical to entertained and enthusiast on this type of exercise, and the innovative teaching method. I really encourage people to adopt this kind of exercise, not only to exercise a second language but any subject at all.

Not exactly recently but…

My last year of school was a grate year to go to the movies. During the last couple of months before giving the PSU I didn’t have to go to class that much, only the occasional test or essay. A friend of mine and I had practically the same studding schedule, so when we would catch the last function. It also helped that my friend had a car and free tickets. Those months I got to watch lots of films, some very good and some just preposterous. A particular film stuck on my retina, 3-Iron , and became one of my favorite, definitely on the top five.
3-Iron is a North Korean film released 15th of October 2004, but it got to our cinemas two years after this. Directed and written by Kim Ki-duk (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring) and stared by Seung-yeon Lee (LOST) and Hyun-kyoon Lee.
This film attraction is not its plot; it’s constructed on little things and feelings, a beautiful love story, completely sublime, a very characteristic oriental narrative. The main characters share no dialog at all, their relationship is based on their loneliness and how, when together, they can overcome it.
If you are an action junkie this is definitely not your film, you’d probably find it slow and with no content. If you are a good observer, then do your self a favor and rent it, if you look a little bit further from the lack of action, you’ll find a complex and dynamic film, filled with surprises.

Assignment 4

Reviewing my classmates’ blogs, I’d have to say Daniel Castillo’s blog is my favorite one. The layout it’s clean and simple easy to read. His posts are well written, (with the obvious mistakes we second language speakers make) very clear and straightforward. One can also notice a progress in his writing skills.
What caught my attention about this blog is the art post because Klimt is one of my favorite painters. Danel’s analysis and interpretation of The Kiss it’s accurate and it shows he understands the artist’s work. My only complaint is that his lacking a picture of the painting, that would have made it much more attractive.
On his firs assignment, Daniel must have been the most sincere of all. Wikipedia is a very popular website among students because its easy to use and has all the basic information one could need. but his sincerity reflects on the following statement “but when I’m on vacation I don’t like to visit it, because it is associated with the responsibilities that you can forget during the summer.” we all feel that way but hardly any have the courage to admit it, besides it made me laugh.
He’s summery on the “anthropological news” well summarized; it had all the information of the article on a few lines.
I’d also like to mention Daniela Soto’s blog, especially her lacuerda post. it was the site that helped me learn how to play the guitar and I’d forgotten all about it until I read her blog. I’d like to abstain from commenting which is my least favorite post, the idea of bashing my classmates’ work online is not that pleasant.

Link to Daniel's blog:http://spectacularenglish.blogspot.com/

The Birth of Venus

Every one knows this painting; it’s a symbol of not only renaissance painting, but its whole classical ideology. When you see it on paper it beautiful, maybe extraordinary, definitely a work of art, but the feeling you get when you stand in front of that enormous 172.5 × 278.5 cm canvas is breathtaking, overwhelming and pure bliss all at the same time.
It was painted by Sandro Botticelli and depicts, as its name tells us, Venus’ birth, emerging from a shell as a grown woman arriving at shore.
The first time I saw the real painting was on Florentine spring 1999, I was eleven years old and was my second time on Florence, but the first I could recall. My father took me to the Uffizi gallery down town. At the time I wasn’t too eager to go to a museum at that period of my life, but he convinced me. Once I stepped inside Venus’s room I couldn’t stop looking, mesmerized by this painting in front of me.

That visit to Uffizi gallery, especially because of this particular painting, changed the whole museum experience for me.As an eleven year old, its extreme beauty and harmony captivated me in a way no other work of art had done before. Probably it dose no depict taste of art these days but It’s special value has no comparison. Since that day on I became a real art contemplator and a frustrated artist; I’ve tried… definitely not my strength.

Summery from the article in the New York times "How are humans unique?"

Scientists form the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology have tested adult chimpanzees and orangutans, and human 2 year olds with a series of cognitive tests to state their differences. The results where that in every area they are pretty much the same, except on their social skills abilities.
Probably the most important ability we have as a species is the ability to work together towards a common end, that’s how we’ve managed to gain and accumulate knowledge through out history. The transmission of this knowledge is facilitated by our way of communicating, while apes communicate to get something, we also share feelings and information.
This doesn’t mean that humans work together on good feelings. It actually means that we work fine when we have something that tells us apart from another group we have to protect ourselves from, leading to horrible consequences. Maybe the solution is the redefinition of those groups.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/magazine/25wwln-essay-t.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1223956440-AB6mLKmxlbVzu1Z+hj5Abg

First assignment

Have you been interrupted while watching your favorite TV show by those horrible advertisements? Well, that is the main reason why I don’t like watching television. Don’t get me wrong I’m not that typical TV snob who says she doesn’t watch it but is actually a real junkie, I love a series or two (actually a lot more but who’s counting)
This turned out to be a real problem (I’m a bit neurotic when it comes to things that I don’t like) those adds where getting on my nerves.
Can you imagine my happiness when I discovered www.surfthechannel.com, this website is designed for people like me, who loves their show but hates the intromission of adds in the middle of it.
Every imaginable show is there, to watch on line. The down side is that its definition is not as good as you’re TV and there are no subtitles, but for me, that’s not so important.
I actually heard of this page from a friend who lives abroad. I couldn’t wait to see the season premier of Grey’s Anatomy (currently my favorite show). I knew she had seen is so I asked if there was any place where I could watch it online, and of course she has the answer.
I visit this website about once a week to catch up with my series or if I’m a little bored at home. You can also watch online films and cartoons.